Advent Calendar 2024 Day 23 - Emmet

I have never heard of this character so I had to Google him and he is something to do with Jim Henson Studios and The Muppets as Kermit the Frog narrates the story.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

I don't think this design is based on the story but the colours in the design do seem to match the colours in the fibre.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  This is not my favourite colour combination and, to be honest, its a bit too busy for my liking so I will need to tone it down somehow.

I did manage to find a photo online of the character of Emmet and the I can see how the colours match his clothing.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 21 - Buddy

I know of this character as I have seen TV adverts and clips of the film but I have never watch the film because the lead role is played by an actor that I really really cannot stand.  I know that a lot of people rave on about this film, saying how great it is blah blah blah, but I really cannot bring myself to watch it.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

I don't know of the design matches anything in the film because I haven't seen the film but its an interesting design though.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  I like this one as it will produce a multi-tonal yellowy-green yarn with flashes of white texture.  I will most likely pair it up with something with the same tone of green from either this year or a previous one.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 18 - Shoemaker

I am very familiar with the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker, it was one my favourite stories to read when I was little along with The Emperor's New Clothes and others that I had in a set of "Read It Yourself" books published by Ladybird in the late 1970's.  The front covers were mostly black with large rounded typeface in bright colours for the "Read it Yourself" and a small illustration at the bottom.  Happy memories from an innocent time of life.

All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

This is another one where the design on the packet is just a nice Christmassy type of design, although it does have a kind of Scandinavian type feel about it.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  This one feels just nasty.  I don't want to touch it if I can help it.  I don't mind the colours so I am wondering if I could pull out most of the nasty rough Faroe Island wool and replace it with something else and add more similar fibres and colours to bring the total up to around 100g.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 16 - Tomte

This one is about Tomte, who sound very much like Nisser from last year. All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

The design on today's packaging does actually appear to have relevance to the story of the character that the fibre is based on, houses.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  I like this one, even if does seem a little busy with the number of colours/shades.  One of the ingredients is dark green Shetland and guess what I bought from the Wool Show the other day, yup, dark green Shetland which might go some way to being put with this .

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 15

The Tradition

Day 15 is called Krampus and the tradition comes from Austria. Krampus is one of the variations of "Santa's helper", where the helper is assigned the naughty list duties.  Krampus is an anthropomorphic goat figure with one human foot and a very long tongue. He is said to have accompanied Saint Nicholas on visits to children on the night of 5th December, immediately before the Feast of Saint Nicholas on 6th December, and he would warn the children to be good otherwise he will return on Christmas Eve with Saint Nicholas and punish naughty children with birch rods.  After WWI the Krampus tradition began to be banned and replaced their Saint Nicholas traditions with the kinder version of the American Santa Claus.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 40% Mohair, 20% Merino, 20% Bamboo, 16% South American Wool, 4% Viscose.  This blend represents arguably the most terrifying Christmas tradition I have ever come across.  This blend is called Krampus, who is like the polar opposite of Father Christmas, so instead of giving children gifts for behaving he scares them into behaving.  The figure of Krampus is large, horned, has fangs and even as an adult I think if some threatened me with Krampus I would probably start behaving myself.   This blend is very interesting looking, it's dark grey, as Krampus is usually depicted as dark greys, browns and blacks.  This contains Mohair, Merino, Viscose and Bamboo.  There is a lot of Mohair in here, which gives a nice drapey feel to it and whereas Merino blends tend to feel quite squishy this definitely feels smoother and a little bit more lank, which is actually quite nice, makes a nice change.  So the Bamboo and the Viscose that is dotted throughout here gives a lovely tweedy effect and actually the colour of the Merino has been lightened by the Mohair in it.  This is a very versatile blend.  If you're spinning it you probably don't want to spin it too tightly because the Mohair in it could risk it feeling a little bit harsh and a little bit hairy.  If you give it a nice light spin and a light ply it will keep the bulk of the Merino.

My Thoughts

I like this one.  It has lots of different shades of grey and black interspersed with blue viscose nepps which will give texture and interest to the finished yarn.  My initial thoughts were to work this with something equally dark from my stash but then I decided to buy an additional 50g when they became available.

The information that has been printed on the bags is not always correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards.  The percentages that they gave on the chat boards are incorrect and different to what was printed on the bags. They gave us the fibre as 60% Fable, 40% Mohair.  What?  I don't recall ever seeing a mysterious Fable animal in a field, is that a sheep, a goat, a horse, what is that?  Oh, right, Fable, as in the name of a blend in the shop, so we have to go find out what that is ourselves and work out what we actually have here.  Fable is 33.33% each Merino, Bamboo and Viscose Tweed, but wait a second, Viscose Tweed is itself made up of 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose.   This means that the overall fibre content is 40% Mohair, 20% Merino, 20% Bamboo, 16% South American Wool, 4% Viscose. 

What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens.  This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 13

The Tradition

Day 13 is called Sinterklaas and the tradition comes from The Netherlands. Based on Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, who was a Greek bishop in Turkey.  He is depicted as an elderly, stately man with white hair and a long white beard and wears a traditional white bishops alb with a long red cape over the top and a red mitre on his head. When he died stories of the goodness he did were told and eventually these became celebrated in the middle ages. Sinterklaas carries a big red book which records whether each child has been good or naughty in the past year. The feast of Sinterklaas is celebrated in the Netherlands on St Nicholas' Eve, 5th December, with the giving of gifts. The feast is also celebrated in other nearby countries on 6th December.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 60% Bio-Nylon (Rosso), 24% South American Wool, 7% Merino, 6% Viscose, 3% Stellina (Gold). Saint Nicholas has been dressed in red and white and that is what this blend is focussing on.  A blend of bio-nylon, wool, viscose and Stellina,  The red in this is the bio-nylon, chosen because it is biodegradable and even though Sinterklaas is dressed in red we really wanted to focus on the glitteryness and also on some of the textures that you see like ruffles around his hood and his collar and cuffs.  We have the lovely red and the glittery Stellina and you can see the really nice nepps running through this.  The great thing about this, it's got a very very large amount of Stellina in it, more than we normally put in which means it will show throughout all of the work you're doing but because this Stellina is quite soft it's not going to give you an itchy or scratchy feel. If you're spinning with it you probably want to draft it out in advance of spinning so that you can make sure you get a bit of everything in every ply and this really is quite a fun blend, there is a lot going on.

My Thoughts

I took a sharp in-take of breath when I opened this one and then squealed excitedly.  It's gorgeous! I can't wait to spin this one and I might spin it along with a white blend from last year's advent calendar that was pure white but very much similar to the white parts of this blend.  I'm not sure yet but that might be what I do with it.

The information that has been printed on the bags is not always correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards.  The percentages that they gave on the chat boards were not correct.  What they originally gave us was 60% Bio Nylon (Rosso), 30% Natural Tweed,  10% Glitter White/Gold.  They state that it is a high Stellina content blend, and it does look like there is a lot of it.  After discussion, the Natural Tweed is actually 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose and the Glitter White/Gold is 70% Merino, 30% Stellina so this means that the final fibre content is actually 60% Bio Nylon, 24% South American Wool, 7% Merino, 6% Viscose and 3% Gold Stellina.  I can't believe that there is only 3% Stellina in the blend, it certainly looks like there is far more than that in the blend! 

What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens.  This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 7

The Tradition

Day 7 is called Nisser and the tradition comes from Denmark.  They are actually called Nisse and are small gnome like creatures with white beards that live in homes and gardens and look after the area they live in as well as any resident animals.  They are one of the most familiar creatures in Scandinavian folklore.  In English editions of Hans Christian Anderson stories the word Nisse as been translated and replaced with the word Goblin.  Rice pudding with a pat of butter on the top is put out for them on Christmas Eve and if you skimp on the butter you risk them playing tricks on you for the next year. 

The Fibre

. 

The actual fibre content is different to that that was printed on the bags, see the comments in "My Thoughts" for full details.  The blend is made of Merino, Viscose and Bamboo and its this wonderful green shade because if you're living the garden you're actually going to want to be well camouflaged in the foliage.  The Merino brings the green to it then we have the Bamboo running through and also the nepps and tweedy-ness of the Viscose coming through as well which gives us a lovely amount of texture.  It's really soft which makes it versatile for spinning, crochet, wet felting and it will do all of that at a drop of a hat. 

My Thoughts

As soon as I opened the packet this one looked very familiar to me as I have something the same or similar in my stash called Riddle and I kind of know what I will be doing with this one, spinning them up individually but to the same thickness and using them both in the same project, maybe something with stripes.

The percentages that they originally gave on the chat boards was 50% Riddle, 25% Tweed, 25% Merino, which is different from the Merino, Viscose and Bamboo that is printed on the bag.  I have some Riddle in my stash and this is made of 33.33% Merino, 33.33% Bamboo and 33.33% Tweed.  We have already discovered that this Tweed is actually made up of 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose. So, there is Tweed in the Riddle part and also extra Tweed has been added.  Figuring this one out actually made my head spin a little but I done the math and the actual fibre content, with figures rounded to 1 decimal point, is 41.7% Merino, 33.3% South American Wool, 16.7% Bamboo, 8.3% Viscose.  The also informed us that the additional Merino element is made up of two colours, Emerald and Lightning.

Top: 50g of Nisser containing 50% Riddle
Botton: 100g of Riddle

As I've already said a couple of times, as a customer/consumer I don't want to know the percentage of "other blends" that are in the blend and I shouldn't have to then do research or ask questions to find out what is in that blend and do the maths to add those fibre percentages into the main blend fibre content percentages.  Thankfully I was not the only one that brought this oversight up with them and they've been pretty good about it. 

What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens.  This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags, as this one got quite messy!.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 3

The Tradition

Day 3 is called Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii and the tradition comes from Japan.   The first KFC outlet opened in Japan in 1970 and its manager was Takeshi Okawara.  He came up with the idea of a creating a "party barrel" of KFC to be sold at Christmas after overhearing a couple of foreigners talking in his store about how they missed having turkey at Christmas whilst they are in Japan.  He marketed his "party barrel" at Christmas in his store until KFC themselves took the idea up and marketed it across all of their Japan stores for Christmas 1974 under the name of Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii, or Kentucky for Christmas.  It was a success and Takeshi Okawara rose through the company ranks quickly, serving as president and CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan from 1984 to 2002.

Previously, there was no Christmas tradition in Japan as the majority of Japanese people follow Shinto or Buddhism faiths, worshipping ancestors and spirits with only around 1% of the population following the Christian faith.  Today an estimated 3.6 million Japanese families treat themselves to the special meal at KFC over Christmas period.  Other families treat it as a time to have a romantic celebration, similar to St Valentines day, and have a meal in upscale restaurants and then there are some families that acknowledge the day but do not celebrate it in any form.

The meals are so popular over the Christmas period that you can't just walk in a get one.  Most people pre-order the meal weeks in advance and if you don't do this then you could be waiting in line for hours to be able to get one and daily sales at some KFC restaurants can be 10 times that of any other time of year.  It's not just barrels of fried chicken that is available, over the years the meals have morphed into banquets and you can now get fried chicken, cake and wine.  In a country that puts a high value on its elders, they now also dress up the company mascot, Colonel Sanders, in Santa outfits. 

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is different to that that was printed on the bags, see the comments in "My Thoughts" for full details. There are some kind of similarities with some colours maybe with some sort of branding but it is totally unintentional and this blend doesn't contain any interesting herbs or spices.  It has a nice bold colour provided by the Corriedale and although Corriedale is not as soft as Merino it does have the same stitch definition when its being knitted or crocheted.  It has a nice bulk to it, which you don't find in Merino blends and there are lovely little bits of Tweed running through it to add a little bit of extra colour and some texture. The lightness comes from the Lotus Fibre, which has just been blended throughout so instead of being a heavy dark red it lifts it quite a bit.

My Thoughts

I like this one, it's quite festive and could even represent Santa with the red suit, white trim and black accessories.  I'm glad that the blends are not all super soft and fluffy, I like having a bit of a more hardwearing fibre too.

The information that has been printed on the bags is not necessarily correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards.  The percentages that they originally gave on the chat boards was 60% Corriedale, 30% Tweed, 10% Lotus, which is different from the Corriedale, Lotus and Viscose that is printed on the bag and after some discussion it transpires that "Tweed" is actually 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose and it took a little while to get the actual contents from them and work out the actual fibre percentages, which is 60% Corriedale, 24% South American Wool, 10% Lotus and 6% Viscose . 

As a customer/consumer I don't want to know the percentage of "other blends" that are in the blend and I shouldn't have to then do research or ask questions to find out what is in that blend and do the maths to add those fibre percentages into the main blend fibre content percentages.  Thankfully I was not the only one that brought this oversight up with them and they've been pretty good about it. I have now also adjusted the fibre content details on all other blends in my stash that contain "Tweed" to correct them to what they actually are.  Thankfully I have not made any shawls or anything with any yarns that I have spun using this "Tweed" content.

What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens.  This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 16

The Cycling: Stage 16 is 22km of an individual time trial route that starts in Passy and ends in Combloux.

The Daily Challenge: Time to be timed!  You've got two minutes to spin as many metres as possible. Go, go, go!

Suggested Fibre: Own choice

What I did

I'm not doing today's challenge.  I've done this before and got myself into a mess

I am going to tackle another of the older braids in my stash, another of the monthly subscription fibres I used to have.  It is called Humboldt.

This is a straight forward 2ply spin so I split the braid into two and pre-drafted before spinning it.

The finished yarn is 45% South American Wool, 25% Merino, 25% Llama, 5% Viscose Nepps, sport weight and 278m/100g.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2022 Stage 13 - Le Bourg d'Oisans to Saint-Étienne

Stage 13 of the Tour de France and it is a 192.6km long flat race that starts in Le Bourg d'Oisans and ends in Saint-Étienne.

The Map

Sights and points of interest along the route

Le Bourg d'Oisans was passed through yesterday on the route and is today's starting town.  It is famous for its slate and minerals, including crystals, and has a rare environment with approximately one-third being part of the Ecrins National Park.  In the attic of Saint Laurent Church is the Museum of Minerals and Wildlife in the Alps and is a reception centre for the Ecrins National Park.

Le Bourg d'Oisans

The first town on today's route is Livet-et-Gayet, which has the Vernes Hydroelectric Power Station built in 1917.  Onto Séchilienne which has suffered a major landslide and then Vizille with its 15th century castle which originally was the home of François de Bonne (1543-1626) is currently home of the Museum of the French Revolution.  Eybens and Grenoble are next with velodome, sports stadiums and 16th century Fort de la Bastille.  Sassenage, where one of its three castles is now the Town Hall.  Just under one-third of the way on the route is Veurey-Voroize, with the headquarters of the daily newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré and 13th century Tour des Templiers, which is almost square at 15m by 13m but was not recognised as a commandery of the Templar order until 1314.  There is also 12th century Notre-Dame-de-Chalais Abbey.

Notre-Dame-de-Chalais Abbey

Onto Tullins-Fures which was once industrious in the hemp cloth, silk, metallurgy and paper making industries before the race takes in Saint-Étienne-de-Saint-Geoirs, the birthplace of Louis Mandrin, the most famous smuggler of the 18th century who was arrested, sentenced to death and executed in Valence at the age of 30.  His story has inspired TV and film on several occasions. 13th century Bressieux Castle in the town of Saint-Siméon-de-Bressieux is free to visit all year round.

Bressieux Castle

The next town, La Côte-Saint-André was the birthplace of composer Hector Berloiz and a museum is dedicated to him and his life.  He is buried in the Montmartre cemetery in Paris, a place which I visited many years ago during a weekend visit to Paris.  I didn't see his grave but I did see that of Adolphe Sax.  Vienne is about 136km into today's route and has been in existence since the year dot, the first century and has an old Roman theatre which seats about 13,000 and is still in use today during the summer months.

Vienne

Onto Sainte-Colombe, with local vineyards and Rive-de-Gier, famous for its glass and Duralex factory, which manufactures glasses, cups, tableware etc.  The next town is Lorette, birth town of Alain Prost, French Formula 1 racing driver.  Saint-Chamond is about 15km from the end of today's race and is famous for its 19th century lace factories and also for Creusot-Loire, an engineering company that specialises in railway engineering, trains, trams and high-speed trains.  Sorbiers is was the new home of Kazakh rider Andrei Kivilev when he settled in France.  He was 4th in the 2001 Tour de France, and was killed during the Paris-Nice race of 2003 and is buried in Sorbiers.

The race ends in Saint-Étienne, the city of design.  In 1765 a great arms factory was built with approval of King Louis XV and it supplied French troops with ammunition.  There are a couple of art museums, the Couriot Shaft and Mine Museum and also the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium, which hosted the Euro 2016.

Saint-Étienne

Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey

The Stage winner is Mads Pedersen for Trek-Segafredo/USA.

The Yellow Jersey won by Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma

The Green Jersey won by Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.

The Polka Dot Jersey won by Simon Geschke for Cofidis/FRA.

The White Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.

Combatif Award won by Mads Pedersen for Trek-Segafredo/USA.

Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers

The Challenge: After a well-deserved flat section the riders will be wheeling in to Saint-Étienne at the end of today.  Saint-Étienne is twinned with Coventry; both locations known for their intense industry in the 1800s.

Today's challenge is related to the fact of the day; we're going a bit foody!  Can you make a yarn look like a cake?  Use colour and texture to see if it is even remotely possible!  Maybe there is a specific shade that makes you hungry, or perhaps some nepps give the effect of sprinkles?  Extra points if you can find a Coventry Godcake (and eat it).

Suggested Fibre:  Buttery Biscuit Base - of course!  A buttery blend of Blue-Faced Leicester topped with some shimmery sweet kid mohair.  Don't eat it...

What I did

One of the the fibres I purchased last month is called Crumpet Tweed and it's a kind of pale peachy colour so I will use that to make something that resembles sponge cake with sprinkles on top as it's the only one I can think of that fits the bill.

I found this one a little difficult to spin due to the sheer amount of nepps in the wool.  It is 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose fibre.  I found a bowl, stuffed a tea towel inside and sat the yarn on top with a red-orange ball to make it look like a cherry topped cake.

The finished yarn is 148m of worsted weight yarn which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 444m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.

Yet another new design - B528

This one is another simple, but effective, shawl pattern and, again, I have used another of my hand spun yarns for this one too, this time a recently spun one that you can read about here.

Knitted simply in repeating 4 blocks of 4 row patterns and the colours in the yarn balances nicely with the simplicity of the pattern, neither are too busy for the other.  The first photo of the shawl on the needles is more true to colour than the photos of the finished item on my kitchen floor.  That wintertime artificial light is playing havoc again with the colours in my photos.

Finally got around to taking photos outside on a good day, even if it was nearly 2 years after I made it.  How time flies when you're up to your eyeballs in British Sheep Breeds and Covid Lockdown.

Spinning up Peak District

This is one of last years monthly fibres, Peak District, that I have on subscription.  I have 100g a month of a surprise fibre, which pushes the boundaries on what fibres blends I spin and also the colours that I spin.  If I only ever spun my favourite colours then I would only ever spin greens, turquoise/aqua/teal blues and purples.

With this one, the opportunity arose to buy some additional fibre and so I bought an extra 300g making the amount of this I have up 400g.  This is a textured fibre braid and coupled with the fibre content the advice is to spin this one from the fold to trap more air in and make it a bouncier and softer than if you were to spin it worsted, which is my usual spin method, and that it would be lovely as a thicker yarn, around about aran weight.  I've been spinning 10 years and never spun from the fold but I've been reading up a bit lately and watching some short  instructional videos to try to increase my repertoire of spinning skills as its easy to fall into a rut.  So the result is a thicker than usual yarn with bounce, and that is why I made sure to get extra of this fibre as 100g of thick yarn won't go very far, a hat if you're lucky.

This was measuring up at aran weight before I gave it a bath and then it plumped up to Super Bulky/Chunky weight and I've already picked something out that I will knit with this.  It totals 385g/320m, I managed to lose 15g somewhere, no idea!

September's Fibre has arrived - Humboldt plus more Peak District

I've been looking forward to receiving this one since the letter arrived telling me that its based on the colouration of the Humboldt Penguin.  Just gotta love the funny penguins and a little bit of Happy Feet.  Its nice, I like it, and its soft too.  45% South American Wool, 25% Merino, 25% Llama, 5% Viscose Tweed Nepps.  This will be interesting when its spun up and I think the little bits of colour will be very subtle.

I also had the chance to buy some more fibre from past months so I bought an additional 300g of Peak District from back in April bringing my total of that fibre to a whopping 400g but it is suggested that it might be best spun around aran weight so I would need a good amount to be able to make a decent sized shawl.  I'll just pop a reminder of that fibre here.

April's Fibre is here - Peak District

We've had to wait for this one as she had issues with the processing company so the letter was late coming out to us as well.  I love this, its so pretty and different to anything else I have.  Its 50% Corriedale, 25% Whitefaced Woodland, 20% South American Wool, 5% Viscose.  Its not overly soft but its still lovely, certainly nowhere near coarse.